Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Wisdom
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“That which is desirable on its own account and for the sake of knowing it is more of the nature of wisdom than that which is desirable on account of its results.”
Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 982a16, Complete Works, vol. 2, p. 1554
“As for him who neither possesses nor can acquire them, let him take to heart the words of Hesiod: ‘ He is the best of all who thinks for himself in all things. He, too, is good who takes advice from a wiser (person). But he who neither thinks for himself, nor lays to heart another's wisdom, this is a useless man.’ (Bk. 1, Chapter II)”
Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of course, he who has put forth his total strength in fit actions, has the richest return of wisdom.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Raphael paints wisdom, Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When Confucius and the Indian Scriptures were made known, no claim to monopoly of ethical wisdom could be thought of... It is only within this century [the 1800 's] that England and America discovered that their nursery tales were old German and Scandinavian stories; and now it appears that they came from India, and are therefore the property of all the nations.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in S. Londhe, A Tribute to Hinduism (2008)
“The free world knows, out of the bitter wisdom of experience, that vigilance and sacrifice are the price of liberty.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even Voltaire's father could not make a lawyer out of a genius. To be a good lawyer, one must have a mind and a disposition to venerate the past; a respect for precedents; a belief in the wisdom and the sanctity of the dead. Voltaire had genius, imagination, feeling, and poetry, and these gifts always have been, and always will be, incompatible with the practice of law.”
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation?”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) said by 1862 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I did not know that mankind were suffering for want of gold. I have seen a little of it. I know that it is very malleable, but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) said by 1862 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Silence, much more powerful than before, much more shot through with the meaning of life and the accumulated wisdom of history.”
James A. Michener (1907–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are seasons, in human affairs, of inward and outward revolution, when new depths seem to be broken up in the soul, when new wants are unfolded in multitudes, and a new and undefined good is thirsted for. There are periods when...to dare, is the highest wisdom.”
William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) first seen 1829 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Union (1829)
“The only thing that we know is that we know nothing — and that is the highest flight of human wisdom.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God of grace and God of glory, On Thy people pour Thy power. Crown Thine ancient church's story, Bring her bud to glorious flower. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, For the facing of this hour, For the facing of this hour.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lo! the hosts of evil 'round us, Scorn Thy Christ, assail His ways. From the fears that long have bound us, Free our hearts to faith and praise. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, For the living of these days, For the living of these days.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, Lest we miss Thy kingdom's goal, Lest we miss Thy kingdom's goal.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I was a little boy, I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised, the Lord, in his wisdom, doesn't work that way. So I just stole one and asked Him to forgive me.”
Emo Philips (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.”
Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) first seen 1832 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Proclamation Regarding Nullification (10 December 1832).
“The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was not pious. He drank whiskey whenever he felt chilly, and kept a jug of it handy. He knew far more profanity than Scripture, and used and enjoyed it more. He had no belief in the infallible wisdom of the lower classes, but regarded them as inflammatory dolts, and tried to save the republic from them. He took no interest in the private morals of his neighbors.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow; but there is something in it so like virtue, that he who is wholly without it cannot be loved.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1781 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Hester Thrale (12 April 1781)
“With these celestial Wisdom calms the mind, And makes the happiness she does not find.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My point today is that, if we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as "lines produced" but as "lines spent": the current conventional wisdom is so foolish as to book that count on the wrong side of the ledger.”
Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dijkstra (1988) "On the cruelty of really teaching computing science (EWD1036).
“May, in spite of all distractions generated by technology, all of you succeed in turning information into knowledge, knowledge into understanding, and understanding into wisdom.”
Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dijkstra (1998)
“Those beasts have everything and we get nothing—not even a crust if we’re starving! The only thing they’re fit for is to be taken in! Just mark my words!" Hortense and Berthe nodded, as though profoundly impressed by the wisdom of their mother’s pronouncements. She had long since convinced them of the absolute inferiority of men, whose sole function in life was to marry and to pay.”
Émile Zola (1840–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 5 (tr. Brian Nelson, 1999)
“We need a third metric of success, which include our health and our being, first of all, because if we sacrifice that, what do we have? And our capacity to tap into our own wisdom, our own sense of wonder at the beauty of life that we so often miss, and our capacity to give, and to be kind”
Arianna Huffington (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Realistic thinking accrues only after mistake making, which is the cosmic wisdom's most cogent way of teaching each of us how to carry on.”
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Buckminster Fuller and Answar Dil, Humans in Universe (1983), 218.
“For it was my master who taught me not only how very little I knew but also that any wisdom to which I might ever aspire could consist only in realizing more fully the infinity of my ignorance.”
Karl Popper (1902–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Axiom: hatred of the bourgeois is the beginning of wisdom. But I include in the word bourgeois, the bourgeois in blouses as well the bourgeois in coats. It is we and we alone, that is to say the literary men, who are the people, or to say it better: the tradition of humanity.”
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) first seen 1867 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 10 May 1867
“Although Poole sometimes missed the cops-and-robbers dramas he had often enjoyed in his youth, he had grown to accept the current wisdom: excessive interest in pathological behaviour was itself pathological. p. 73”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The future is built on the rubble of the past; wisdom lies in facing that fact, not in fighting against it.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), edited with Jason A. Shulman, p. 281
“Books ... hold within them the gathered wisdom of humanity, the collected knowledge of the world's thinkers, the amusement and excitement built up by the imaginations of brilliant people. Books contain humor, beauty, wit, emotion, thought, and, indeed, all of life. Life without books is empty.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Puzzles of the Black Widowers (1990), pp. 74-75
“There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Brave, unconcerned, mocking, violent—thus wisdom wants us: she is a woman, and loves only a warrior.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Ringworld Throne (1996)
“The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments—of those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue—are complete sceptics in religion...”
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom and contrivance are shown in overcoming difficulties, so there is no place for them in a Being for whom no difficulties exist”
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Genes do indirectly control the manufacture of bodies, and the influence is strictly one way: acquired characteristics are not inherited. No matter how much knowledge and wisdom you acquire during your life, not one jot will be passed on to your children by genetic means. Each new generation starts from scratch.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hold a cup of wisdom, But there is nothing within.”
“When we reverence anything in the mature, it is their virtues or their wisdom, and this is an easy matter. But we reverence the faults and follies of children. We should probably come considerably nearer to the true conception of things if we treated all grown-up persons, of all titles and types, with precisely that dark affection and dazed respect with which we treat the infantile limitations.”
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men always talk about the most important things to total strangers. It is because in the total stranger we perceive man himself; the image of God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of the wisdom of a moustache.”
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I will fight for you, yes, and you will fight for me. And if you have sacrificed joy and courage and beauty and wisdom for my sake, I will give them all to you again; and yet you must also give them to me, for they are things in which without you I am wanting. But together we can make them.”
Eleanor Farjeon (1881–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen and unsupposed circumstances ... that no human wisdom can calculate the end.”
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) first seen 1787 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prospects on the Rubicon (London: J. Debrett, 1787)
“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, These three alone lead life to sovereign power. Yet not for power (power of herself Would come uncall'd for) but to live by law, Acting the law we live by without fear; And, because right is right, to follow right Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wisdom of our ancestors.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) first seen 1769 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Burke is credited by some with the first use of this phrase, in Observations on a Late Publication on Present State of the Nation (1769), p. 516; also in Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770) and Discu…
“Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Corrupt influence, which is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder; which loads us, more than millions of debt; which takes away vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young; but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source